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WSJ: Chess Investigation Finds That Grandmaster Hans Niemann ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

Zor

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,353
This has obviously been blowing up the last few weeks since Magnus Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating in their game, but just saw that the Wall Street Journal tweeted out their exclusive story which was retweeted by Chess.com (who put out a statement last week saying they were looking to address this during the week):

When world chess champion Magnus Carlsen last month suggested that American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann was a cheater, the 19-year-old Niemann launched an impassioned defense. Niemann said he had cheated, but only at two points in his life, describing them as youthful indiscretions committed when he was 12 and 16 years old.

Now, however, an investigation into Niemann's play—conducted by Chess.com, an online platform where many top players compete—has found the scope of his cheating to be far wider and longer-lasting than he publicly admitted.

The report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleges that Niemann likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, as recently as 2020. Those matches included contests in which prize money was on the line. The site uses a variety of cheating-detection tools, including analytics that compare moves to those recommended by chess engines, which are capable of beating even the greatest human players every time
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On the investigation/report:

When Niemann addressed the suspicions last month, he said the only instance in which he cheated in an event with prize money was when he was 12. He said he later cheated as a 16-year-old, in "random games," and that they were the biggest mistakes of his life. He also said he never cheated while live-streaming a game.

"I would never, could even fathom doing it, in a real game," he said.

The Chess.com report contradicts those statements. It says several prize-money events are included in the 100-plus suspect games and that he was live-streaming the contests during 25 of them. It adds that he was 17 years old during the most recent violations, which subsequently led Chess.com to close his account. A letter sent to Niemann included in the report notes "blatant cheating" to improve his rating in various games, including in one against Russian chess star Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen's most recent challenger for the World Chess Championship.

Niemann in 2020 confessed to the allegations in a phone call with the platform's chief chess officer, Danny Rensch, the report says. The report also includes screenshots of subsequent Slack messages between the two in which they discuss a possible return to the site, which is permitted for players who admit their wrongdoing.
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The report states that Niemann privately confessed to the allegations, and that he was subsequently banned from the site for a period of time.

The 72-page report also flagged what it described as irregularities in Niemann's rise through the elite ranks of competitive, in-person chess. It highlights "many remarkable signals and unusual patterns in Hans' path as a player."

While it says Niemann's improvement has been "statistically extraordinary." Chess.com noted that it hasn't historically been involved with cheat detection for classical over-the-board chess, and it stopped short of any conclusive statements about whether he has cheated in person. Still, it pointed to several of Niemann's strongest events, which it believes "merit further investigation based on the data." FIDE, chess's world governing body, is conducting its own investigation into the Niemann-Carlsen affair.

"Outside his online play, Hans is the fastest rising top player in Classical [over-the-board] chess in modern history," the report says, while comparing his progress to the game's brightest rising stars. "Looking purely at rating, Hans should be classified as a member of this group of top young players. While we don't doubt that Hans is a talented player, we note that his results are statistically extraordinary."
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www.wsj.com

Chess Investigation Finds That U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times

An internal report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal alleges a previously unknown pattern of likely widespread cheating by Hans Moke Niemann, the player whose September victory over Magnus Carlsen has rocked the chess world.
www.wsj.com www.wsj.com


View: https://twitter.com/andrewlbeaton/status/1577380022788169728?s=20&t=KHA_5bY2wAAZOLJsTE6Szw

Release my anal beads if old.
 
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Duffking

Duffking

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,705
I mean at that point it doesn't matter if he cheated against Carlsen or not really does it? You can't trust anyone with a pattern of cheating like that not to cheat.
 
Tfritz

Tfritz

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,275
the war on kink continues, just because this person wanted to use anal bead play in the privacy of his public chess matches
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,158
i get how people can assume he's cheating— plays that just make no sense at higher level games that most of us are too dumb to see — but how do they prove it?

I thought the buttplug thing was some meme
 
HylianSeven

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,066
Can't read the whole article because paywall, but is the anal beads thing actually true or was just a goof made up from Reddit or something?
 
Precious Tritium

Precious Tritium

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,409
HylianSeven said:
Can't read the whole article because paywall, but is the anal beads thing actually true or was just a goof made up from Reddit or something?
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I think it's just the only way he could have had a device on him if he was cheating because it was a live in person match. It's probably because I don't know enough about high level chess but I really want proof and not just his moves were too good.
 
vpricot

vpricot

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
483
I'm pretty sure the anal bead thing started as a joke but I think it's hilarious it's gonna be what he's known for doing.
 
Kinthey

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,324
HylianSeven said:
Can't read the whole article because paywall, but is the anal beads thing actually true or was just a goof made up from Reddit or something?
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Just a goof that afaik someone in a twitch chat suggested. The chess player who was streaming responded and since then the thing developed on it's own. Afaik does no professional player actually believe he used anal beads
 
Dust

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,270
Bluetooth anal bead?
What? 😳

How would this help in any way? Morse code lmao?
 
poweld

poweld

Member
Nov 1, 2017
565
The report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleges that Niemann likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, as recently as 2020. Those matches included contests in which prize money was on the line. The site uses a variety of cheating-detection tools, including analytics that compare moves to those recommended by chess engines, which are capable of beating even the greatest human players every time
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They analyzed his matches over the past few years and found that he'd >100 in the past. From this snippet, it doesn't imply that they know how he cheated, just that he did, but I don't have access to the full writeup :(
 
spootime

spootime

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,431
Precious Tritium said:
I think it's just the only way he could have had a device on him if he was cheating because it was a live in person match. It's probably because I don't know enough about high level chess but I really want proof and not just his moves were too good.
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Why wouldn't it be taped to his thigh or something instead of being crammed up his ass?

edit: dont get me wrong I love the idea of an anal communicator.
 
skullmuffins

skullmuffins

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,425
Grimm Fandango said:
Article is paywalled. How did he cheat exactly?
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This is about his online matches, so no anal beads required. It doesn't explicitly say, but it sounds like he was simply running a chess engine in a different window.

Niemann last month questioned why he was banned from the Chess.com Global Championship, a million-dollar prize event. Shortly thereafter, Rensch wrote a letter to Niemann explaining that "there always remained serious concerns about how rampant your cheating was in prize events" and that there was too much at stake. The letter added that Niemann's suspicious moves coincided with moments when he had opened up a different screen on his computer—implying that he was consulting a chess engine for the best move.

"We are prepared to present strong statistical evidence that confirm each of those cases above, as well as clear 'toggling' vs 'non-toggling' evidence, where you perform much better while toggling to a different screen during your moves," Rensch wrote.
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arimanius

arimanius

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,267
All this thread has done is make me confused on how someone cheats at chess and intrigued about Bluetooth butt plugs.
 
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